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B.C. Liberal ethnic voters memo just ‘a political game’

While ethnic strategy has caused some anger in B.C.’s Asian communities, many doubt the backlash will sway a lot of votes

Karnail Singh Mann at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey says issues affecting his members are those affecting all in B.C.

Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider
, PNG

METRO VANCOUVER - To politically aware people, the provincial Liberals’ leaked “Multicultural Strategic Outreach Plan,” with its bald proposal to use government workers and taxpayer funds to tap into hot-button election issues, is an explosive document that could spell disaster for Christy Clark’s embattled government.

But for many people in the B.C.’s Asian communities, the plan, with its cynical ‘quick wins’ strategy, isn’t registering much. To many, it’s either a tempest in a teapot, or something to be expected given B.C.’s history of robust politicking.

Identify blocks of voters and try to capitalize on their needs. It’s an old political strategy. Whether it was recruiting Irish voters in early New York, playing to francophone and anglophone differences in Quebec or, more recently, targeting Conservative immigration policies in the 2011 election, politicians have always recognized the value of playing to the sentiments of vote-rich segments of society.

“We do know that mobilization of voters thought of belonging to ethnic blocks is a pretty ancient practice in elections pretty much everywhere,” said Richard Johnston, a political science professor at the University of B.C.

“It’s difficult to imagine that Canada or B.C. would have the complex types of multicultural programs that we have if parties in power or parties seeking power didn’t think there was some political mileage in it.”

But the B.C. Liberals’ leaked memo raised eyebrows even among party supporters, and appeared to cross the line.

“I think that the memo was just a lot blunter in its political purposes than what we normally see in these matters. And it did have a program of action that was pretty obviously cynical and electoral,” Johnston said.

That lifting of the curtain and discovery of puppeteers pulling strings is likely what is most offensive, Johnston said. “This is political advice that extends into the mechanics of electioneering. That’s across the line.”

Indira Prahst, a sociologist and supporter of Clark, sees the memo as cynically trying to take advantage of cultural issues sensitive to the South Asian community. The memo suggested Liberals could get quick traction in ethnic communities by apologizing for historic wrongs, such as the 1914 Komagata Maru incident, and by engineering events supportive of those communities, such as bringing the Times of India Bollywood film awards to B.C.

“There have to be boundaries. When you are playing with historical wrongs (or historic) institutional racism, that hurts the South Asian community. This has been their struggle in Canada so when you are taking an emotional chord of a real struggle and using it politically, there is an ethical component to that,” Prahst said.

Prahst, who chairs Langara College’s sociology and anthropology department, said many people were offended by the leaked Liberal strategy, not the least of which because it showed the authors don’t understand the community they seek to win over. The Bollywood awards, for example, only appeal to a segment of the South Asian community.

Former Vancouver councillor Tung Chan, who is vice-chair of the Canadian Museum of Immigration, said the most offensive part of the Liberal memo affair was that it mixed party aspirations with government operations. That’s always going to get people angry, he said.

But Chan, once president of Vancouver’s Non-Partisan Association and member of the Richmond Progressive Conservative Association, said he doesn’t believe the memo, with its proposed apology strategy, will sway people either way.

Reaction was mixed outside political circles.

Ravinder Narula owns a bustling South Asian grocery store in a strip mall on 72 Avenue near the Surrey-Delta border.

He found the memo disrespectful to his community and believes it could turn former Liberal supporters against the party. “I think people will read this and they might change their minds (about how to vote),” said Narula, who owns the Sabzi Mandi Supermarket.

However, he added, the election is two months away, and that is a long time in politics.

Narula will decide who gets the tick on his ballot after hearing from the candidates closer to the election.

The accompanying story by Rattan Mall predicted the Liberal memo would alienate visible minority voters and adds, “Clark and her team have been stumbling from one blunder to another in dealing with South Asians.”

The scandal, however, has not caught the imaginations of all members of Surrey’s fast-growing South Asian community.

The Sun spoke to about a dozen customers and employees in a small mall, who either had never heard of the debacle or didn’t care because they didn’t plan to vote.

Harjinder Thind hosts a popular call-in show on RedFM, a South Asian radio station, that has fielded many comments about the Liberal document.

“The callers felt disappointed,” Thind said in an interview. “When the B.C. government said they would apologize for Komagata Maru, they thought the premier and the party was on their side. But when they found out about this quick win scandal, that really changed their minds. The sympathy and comfort they felt with the party, it turned to anger. It still hasn’t subsided.”

This was particularly troubling, Thind added, because many members of Surrey’s South Asian community have backed the premier and her party.

Although the province’s Sikh temples are known as hotbeds of politics, from the debate over tables and chairs to regular appearances by politicians for photo opportunities, Surrey’s biggest gurdwara won’t be taking sides in the election.

In 2005, the Guru Nanak Sikh Gudwara, which has more than 30,000 members, hosted a visit by then-NDP leader Carole James, who was introduced by the temple leaders as “the next premier.” Many members had broken away from the Liberal party after Premier Gordon Campbell failed to fulfil promises he made during a similar temple visit years before.

This week, the general secretary of the gurdwara, which is undergoing major renovations to accommodate its fast-growing congregation, attempted to distance the temple from the political fray caused by the leak of the Liberal plan. Karnail Singh Mann said the temple was trying to stay non-political.

“The issues affecting our congregation and members are similar to those affecting all British Columbians,” he said.

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In Burnaby — where two of four ridings are held by Liberals and the other two by NDP — South Asian residents have not taken kindly to the province’s proposed initiative, said Shashi Assanand, executive director of Vancouver and Lower Mainland Cultural Family Support.

“People tend to think there are pros and cons but from what I hear it’s not positive,” she said.

Assanand said the strategy isn’t surprising, noting most candidates court the ethnic vote. But the media has given the Liberal memo so much play that it’s fanned the debate, she said.

“It’s so much in the media that one cannot help but look at it and it sounds very negative. It’s had a lot of play,” she said. “This thing happens all the time, that minorities are used one way or another. One can say that at least they’re being included ... but ghettoizing any culture or group is not appropriate.”

In Burnaby North, held by Liberal MLA Richard Lee, resident Yukio Ara, 71, agreed that minorities are often easy pickings for candidates looking for votes. But it’s no different from any candidate spinning a stream of promises before an election.

And although he believes governments should focus more on priorities such as education than ethnic strategies to win votes, Ara said the move likely won’t likely keep him from voting Liberal.

Jason Chen, 29, who lives in the NDP-held Burnaby-Deer Lake riding (it includes Metrotown) said he doubts the Liberal strategy will have much an effect on most voters. He said the issue was blown of proportion.

Chen, co-ordinator of a child care centre and an NDP voter, said he will base his vote on the candidate who is focused on early childhood education.

May Zhang voted Liberal in the last election but didn’t know much about the province’s ethnic strategy. While it may be good in some respects, it’s also “a little bit weird,” she said.

“I’m not sure what I think about it,” said Zhang, who emigrated here from mainland China and lives in the NDP MLA Kathy Corrigan’s riding of Burnaby-Deer Lake.

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In Richmond, news of the ethnic vote strategy and the political fallout had certainly hit the public radar.

But most people seemed to shrug it off as typical political tomfoolery and not a blunder of great significance.

Richmond senior Jenny Chan had nothing but good things to say about Christy Clark as she finished up a dance class at the senior’s centre in Minoru Park in central Richmond.

Chan said the memo had done nothing to sway her from voting Liberal in the upcoming election, primarily because of Clark and the “powerful” image the premier has displayed since assuming leadership.

“She is working hard for us,” Chan said.

Stephanie Ho said she wasn’t exactly impressed by the strategy, but she also wasn’t insulted. At best, she said, political plans to woo the so-called “ethnic” vote are unnecessary.

Originally from Singapore, the 43-year-old homemaker said her background is not an important determinant in how she selects a candidate or party. Rather, she, like other voters, is swayed by more pressing issues such as the health of the economy and society.

“We just need a good government to run the province,” Ho said.

Dennis Tao, 42, has a similar opinion. A travel agent with CYTS Travel Service, Tao said he saw no great scandal in the strategy, but his biggest objection was the use of public money in campaigning. He otherwise dismissed it as a “political game.”

Jimmy Chan, 59, said the economy is the most important election issue.

In particular, the retired marketer wants to see more opportunities for employment in the province, primarily because he is looking to start another career.

Chan said there is nothing wrong with the government working more deliberately to engage him as a Chinese-Canadian, adding many Chinese-speaking people would welcome communication in their primary language.

“More Chinese people will pay attention to the issues and will focus on voting,” he said.

Chan said he will vote in May but hasn’t yet decided who will get his support.

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